A false alarm warning of a ballistic missile heading to Hawaii despatched the islands right into a panic. Hawaii officers apologized repeatedly, saying the alert was despatched when somebody hit the mistaken button throughout a shift change. (Jan. thirteen)AP

A Hawaii emergency administration worker was reassigned and the state company he works for has acquired dying threats amid fallout from the botched ballistic missile alert that triggered panic throughout the island paradise, officers stated Monday.

The ten-yr worker has been briefly reassigned, pending an investigation into the incident, to a job that “doesn’t present entry to the warning system,” the Hawaii Emergency Administration Company stated in a press release.

The company created to guard the lives of Hawaiians now should additionally cope with demise threats. Emergency administration spokesman Richard Rapoza confirmed to USA TODAY that the company acquired the threats by way of nameless phone calls.

“We perceive that members of our group are indignant about Saturday’s false alarm, and we’re taking a look at these messages as people blowing off steam,” Rapoza stated in a press release. “Whereas we take any menace towards our personnel critically, we’re doing our greatest to not escalate the state of affairs.”

Hawaii is about four,500 miles from Pyongyang, and the vocal army threats from North Korean chief Kim Jong Un are taken critically by state officers. The state has been working to improve the missile warning program.

The chaos began Saturday at 8:05 a.m. during a routine internal test involving the state’s much ballyhooed Emergency Alert System. But the employee hit the live-alert button by mistake, and at 8:07 a.m. this alert was erroneously pushed to cellphones across the state: “Missile threat inbound to Hawaii. Seek immediate shelter. This is not a drill.”

Three minutes later, the agency had confirmed that there was in fact no missile threat. Police were quickly notified and social media announced the mistake. But the text explaining the error wasn’t sent for 38 minutes, in part because no such text had been pre-scripted.

Finally came this missive: “There is no missile threat or danger to the State of Hawaii. Repeat. False Alarm.”

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The confusion resulted in controlled bedlam as Hawaiians dashed for cover, hid in basements and reached out to friends and loved ones. In Manoa, the Durkin family huddled in an underground bunker built in their home after the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941.

“We just started throwing supplies into the bomb shelter and closed the top and got on our phones to look for updates,” Paraluman Stice-Durkin told Hawaii News Now.